Matching tattoos.
Emma has looked at her left wrist in disbelief for all of her life. It hurt her knowing that there may not exist another half to her tattoo. It was kind of a weird sideways capital "x". What could even possibly complete an X? Neal hadn't shown her his tattoo. He just didn't want to. So she hadn't shown him hers either. And never has she ever met a stranger with a shape that could possibly complete her tattoo. She didn't even know what she was looking for, but Mary-Margret and David insisted that she will know for sure when she will see his tattoo, whatever it might be. She did some research on this whole soulmate thing and she found out it's all about the symbolism.
She's so afraid every time she travels to a new place. What if that will be the place she met him? What if he had a girlfriend or a wife he loved without being her soulmate? What if he's just not interested in this whole soulmate thing? This whole situation is just terrifying to her.
Killian never wanted to look at his tattoo. But after Milah's death, he felt like he had no choice. He needed some closure. He needed to know if Milah was in fact his soulmate or if he was ever going to have a shot at true love again. Milah knew, because he showed her his tattoo and she told him she looked at her own too. But he told her he didn't want to know anything, because certainty would ruin the magic, although he was almost sure she was his soulmate. But after her death, that certainty would help him move on. Either he was going to find out that his soulmate just passed away, or he would be able to hope for a second chance. And when he looked at his wrist, he saw something like the half of an oval, only really pointy at one end.
When he was called in to indentify Milah's body, he looked at her left wrist and was shocked to see the exact same shape, at the exact same angle and pointed in the same direction as his tattoo. The only difference was, her tattoo was just an outline of his. It confused Killian. He did some research and it seemed their tattoos didn't actually fit together, they were just a mere reflection of one another. That meant that even though they seemed right for each other, fate would eventually tear them apart. See, I told you these things were all about the symbolism. And Milah knew that, yet she continued to love Killian just as much. That made him crack.
They say whenever you get a tattoo, your soulmate gets it too. Killian didn't know that, because if he did, he wouldn't have tortured his soulmate, whoever it was, with countless tattoos. He used to go in the tattoo shop every day and get a tiny line tattooed on his back. When the artist asked him what the hell he was doing, he simply answered: "I'm counting the days until I'll be happy without being drunk off my arse." The tattoo artist looked at him with sad eyes and gave Killian what he wanted: countless tiny lines to signify days. When he stopped coming in, the tattoo artist was so happy for him, he was almost out of his mind. Then Killian came back exactly one year after his last tattoo and told him: " One more, please."
The artist realized Killian had most certainly lost hope and started counting the years. That made his heart sink even the slightest bit.
Meanwhile, Emma didn't know what was happening. The first few days the pain was insufferable. Neal had just left her at the time and she was a twenty-year-old heartbroken girl. Killian was twenty-two at the time. After seven months, the pain stopped. She didn't know what was happening until Mary Margret explained it to her. Then she realized her soulmate was probably counting the days. She was so curious as to why, it almost came to her mind to get a tattoo asking the guy what had happened. But thank God she didn't. After seven months of daily doses of pain, the guy stopped counting the days. Instead, he started counting years, so every 25th of September she would get herself a new tattoo. Well, not intentionally of course. The counting lasted four years.
The evening before getting his fifth yearly tattoo, Killian noticed something was bugging him. Pain similar to that of getting a tattoo was shooting through his body.
"Bloody hell" He told himself as he looked down at his right wrist, the one without the tattoo on it. "What is happening?"
He quickly phoned his brother, Liam, who explained everything to him while laughing at his lack of knowledge. Apparently, to Killian's surprise, every time he got something new tatted on his body, his soulmate would get it too. "Poor lass had to endure seven months and four years of pain. Sorry, love" he muttered to himself as he looked down at his right wrist again and saw a question mark permanently inked on it. "Well, lass, what is it that you would like to know?" He smiled and realized he was happy. Or at the very least, intrigued. His soulmate was out there, and even though he could never truly forget Milah, he could get over her. So he smiled to himself again and went to bed.
The next morning, Emma woke up to pain in her right wrist. At first, she panicked, thinking the tattoo might have got infected or something scary like that. But then she looked down at her wrist and saw an exclamation mark appearing right next to her brand new tattoo. She smiled briefly before thinking to herself : "So you stopped counting, huh? Maybe someone can actually want to get to know me after all."
Meanwhile, in the same state, although pretty far away from her, Killian was evaluating this whole situation. So he's supposed to be this girl's soulmate: A girl who he never met before, who doesn't know who he is, and who doesn't know where in this whole wide world he is. And he doesn't know anything about her either, but he is dead curious and he would very much like to know everything. And so he comes up with a plan.
They say your body is a canvas. If that canvas can be shared to paint something permanent, why not use it for something that can be erased, like semi-permanent tattoos. Killian was not sure at all that this could work, but there was literally nothing that could go wrong except, of course, for him going back to square one. He wanted to get to know this girl so badly, because it seemed she was curious as to something about him. Probably why he counted days and years. Yeah, that's most probably what she was wondering. And he was not going to let her down, because there was a slight chance she actually cared. And that's what made him happy. So he went to a friend of his and asked him to temporarily tattoo something on him. He decided to write everything down on his hand in block letters, so she could understand.
"Hey. I would love to actually meet you, if that would be okay. After all, we are supposed to be bloody soulmates, isn't that right, love?"
Emma got the chills when she read what her new tattoo said. This guy actually wanted to meet her. Like, in real life. So they could talk and meet up. Gosh, that was amazing. But she was still afraid: what if he didn't like her and ran away, just like Neal did. What if he just left? That thought was terrifying, but she knew she somehow had to find out who this guy was. She wanted to meet him and talk to him so badly, but she couldn't. At least not right now. Because she didn't know anyone at all who can do semi-permanent tattoos. And that sucked, because she couldn't get "Hi. I'm Emma Swan." tattooed permanently across her and this guy's arm. So she just went to bed and decided to deal with all this tomorrow. Killian did the same thing and it was just another Sunday night for the both of them. The only difference was, none of them went to bed aching for something similar to love this time, because they both knew someone could actually be out there.
The next morning, everything moved as fast for the both of them as it usually does on a Monday morning. Emma woke up, took a shower, got dressed and forgot to make breakfast or drink her coffee. Killian woke up, took a shower, ate some eggs for breakfast, got dressed and left for work at the coffee-shop. Emma left for work at the diner and stopped at a coffee-shop on her way there. Nothing out of the usual really, besides the fact that they were both over the moon because of last night.
Emma ordered the usual: a hot cocoa with cinnamon and a bagel. She would have loved to order some grilled cheese or something that she would've enjoyed more but she had absolutely no time for that or for the hot guy at the counter.
Killian served a lot of people during his time at the coffee-shop, but none quite as hurried as the blonde who ordered hot cocoa with cinnamon that morning. It was the first time he didn't flirt with a hot customer because it would have felt wrong to. He somehow felt like he had to focus on finding his soulmate. But on second-thought, a little flirting wasn't going to kill anyone. Besides, he somehow knew he wasn't going to flirt with anyone else that day. Maybe only with this soulmate of his if she decides to write back. With that thought in mind, Killian looked at the girl's hand and noticed she had some small writing on the back of her hand.
"Cool tattoo." He said with a smirk. "You got a story behind it?"
"Kind of. Not yet, actually." She said hopefully. "I just hope there will one day be a story. But it's not permanent, anyway."
Killian wanted to see this mysterious hot girl's tattoo so bad, but he didn't want to come across as creepy, so he just nodded in response and wrote a lame pick-up line on her cup. Then, just like she came in, the blonde girl left the building and that was it.
Emma just had a rather awkward encounter at the coffee-shop. The hot guy at the counter was hitting on her and glancing over at the tattoo from her soulmate. "Amazing", she thought to herself. But there was no way in hell she was going to explain her complicated love-life to a random barista.
That same day, Emma went back to the coffee-shop for lunch and was not surprised to see the same barista on shift. She probably shouldn't have come here, because she didn't want to be hit on by a handsome Brit. Actually, that was kind of on the bottom of her bucket-list right now. The very first thing on her list was to meet her soulmate. It sounded so weird and cheesy, but she couldn't help it. This guy, whoever he was and wherever he lived, wanted to meet her and talk to her and get to know her.
It made her so, so happy that she could finally have someone want her the way she wants them and it also made her happy that he came up with the brilliant idea of talking via semi-permanent tattoos. It was actually a very good idea, and she, the master of pessimism herself, couldn't find it any flaw.
Killian's shift was almost over when the blonde from earlier came up to the counter again. This time she only ordered some grilled cheese, but when she moved her hand and grabbed her wallet out of her purse, Killian caught a glimpse of a tattoo on the girl's right wrist. It was small and wasn't very obvious. He didn't say anything and just gave her her change back. Then she grabbed her cup and left, but this time Killian saw all of her tattoos.
On the inside of her right wrist were inked a question mark and an exclamation mark, on her left wrist there was a glowing , sideways capital X and on the back of her hand a few short sentences. Killian checked his own hands in disbelief and realized that the blonde girl he had been hitting on this morning was actually supposed to be his soulmate, not only because of their identic tattoos, but because of the glowing sign on her wrist that appeared to match his tattoo. Apparently, his birthmark was glowing too. He put down his uniform apron and ran outside the coffee-shop and out into the streets after the girl. Finally, he spotted her in the crowd of people and walked up to her.
"Hi." He said nervously. "I'm Killian."
"Uh…hi. I'm Emma. Can I help you or something?"
"Yes, actually. I couldn't help but notice your tattoos. Or well, my tattoos. Our tattoos? I don't know, but that's beside the point. Also, you have a glowing golden X on your other wrist and I have a weird shape that's glowing too." He exhales a little shyly. " So, uhm, hi Emma, I guess we're soulmates…."
"Well, hi there, soulmate" She says with a shy smile on her face. "It is very nice to finally meet you."